Our river of offence

I had an experience recently where I was enrolled into a course that I felt I did not need. I found it insulting because I assumed that it was because I was not of an Anglo-Saxon background that I was there. In my anger I sinned and did not represent the name I carry with the pride and dignity it deserves … But we won’t get into that right now.

soon found out that I was wrong and that there was nothing discriminatory about the opportunity. Yes, sometimes we do face discrimination, but when we carry those experiences and filter everything that comes our way through them, we become the ones being racial and discriminatory. We stop seeing the good in people and assume that every white person is out to get us or is framing their opinions of us from the view that we are inferior.

It takes a lot of commitment and conscious thought to challenge what it is we are internalising, but in order to not see yourself as a victim, it is essential, because, as the proverbs warn, we need to keep our hearts “with all vigilance, for from [there] flow the springs of life. If I let the source for all I do, become toxic, then I will be unable to give off anything good. When I changed my attitude, I ended up learning more about myself and about opportunities open to me that if I hadn’t attended that session, would have never known.

What are the filters that you are viewing life from? What is flowing from your life and colouring everything you come into contact with? Are they rivers of offence or hae your negative experiences left you a richer human being?